Twellman steals the show

CARSON, Calif. -- Taylor Twellman obviously is pleased the
United States is headed for this summer's World Cup in Germany. He
just hopes he's asked along.
Twellman made a statement for being included on the final U.S.
squad, scoring three goals Sunday in a 5-0 rout of Norway -- the
largest margin of victory for the Americans over a European team.

"Germany is my goal now. The team is there. However, Taylor
Twellman is not," Twellman said after scoring on a left-footed
drive and a pair of powerful headers.
"I will do my best to gain the trust of my teammates and the
coaching staff. I want to be in Germany."
Bruce Arena took note.
"If what Taylor is seeking is a spot on the final roster that
is traveling to Germany, he is definitely on the right track with a
hat trick performance," the U.S. coach said.
The Americans, tuning up for the World Cup, used mostly
domestic-based players in the victory. Foreign-based U.S. players
will join the squad later.
Twellman, who plays for the New England Revolution of Major
League Soccer, provided a quick 2-0 lead, then added his third goal
in the 76th minute.
Coming off a scoreless tie against Canada a week earlier, the
United States dominated the game against the young Norwegian team.
Moving the ball crisply on the attack, the Americans spent most of
the afternoon deep on Norway's side of the field and outshot the
Norwegians 24-2.
"It is always gratifying to score and even more when it's three
goals," Twellman said. "Overall, we took the chances we had. I am
happy with my performance, but even more with the overall
performance of the team.
"If we keep this up, we should have a decent World Cup."
The 25-year-old Twellman, a former University of Maryland star,
gave U.S. goalkeeper Kevin Hartman all the scoring he would need
when he drove a left-footed shot past Norway's Espen Johnsen in the
fifth minute.
Twellman made it 2-0 with a powerful header past Johnsen 12
minutes later. After scoring only one goal in his 14 previous
appearances for the national team, Twellman scored his third of the
match on another header that made it 4-0. It was only the ninth
three-goal game for a U.S. player, the first since Eddie Johnson
against Panama in October 2004.
Eddie Pope, the 32-year-old defender making his 75th
international appearance for the United States, scored the third
goal. Todd Dunivant set up the score with his second assist of the
match.
Chris Klein capped the scoring in the 87th minute. Landon
Donovan, who skillfully orchestrated much of the U.S. attack,
assisted on Klein's goal.
Clint Dempsey also provided spark, and Arena said, "These types
of games are for testing out players and surely Twellman, Dempsey
and Dunivant did not let anyone down today with their
performance."
Hartman had a relatively quiet day in goal because Norway was
unable to mount much offense, but the American goalie did make a
spectacular lunging save on Frode Kippe's shot from point-blank
range in the 13th minute.
But for Norway's 6-foot-4 Brede Hangeland consistently clearing
U.S. passes out of the box, the score could have been considerably
more lopsided.
Norway failed to qualify for the World Cup, losing out on a pair
of 1-0 losses to the Czech Republic. The rebuilding Norwegians were
coming off a 2-1 loss to Mexico in a match in San Francisco on
Wednesday.
The United States faces Japan in another friendly match on Feb.
10 in San Francisco, then plays Guatemala in Frisco, Texas, on Feb.
19.
"Now we have to head back to camp to touch up the mistakes we
made today," Arena said. "Overall, we looked good. The soccer is
there, we just need to finish all our chances."